Kathleen Driskell, a professor of creative writing at Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky, was selected to receive the Judy Gaines Young Book Award from Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky. The award is given annually to the author of a recent book of distinction from the Appalachian region.
Professor Driskell was honored for her poetry collection Next Door to the Dead (University of Kentucky Press, 2015). Professor Driskell and her family moved into a former church that was built before the Civil War and is adjacent to a cemetery with 112 graves. The occupants of the cemetery inspired her latest collection. She has since published a new collection, Blue Etiquette (Red Hen Press, 2016).
Professor Driskell currently serves as vice-chair for the Mid-Atlantic region of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs. She is also associate editor of the Louisville Review.